I’ll admit I don’t know a ton about snowboard cross, and I haven’t watched a lot of the sport other than occasionally on TV during the X-Games or past Olympics, but man, that’s a fun event to watch.
The field was narrowed down to 32 by the results of timed individual runs, then those 32 racers were divided into eight groups of four. Two out of each group went to the quarterfinals, and two from each quarterfinal went to the semis, etc.
In the first 12 races—the entire round of 32 and all of the quarterfinals—we saw at least one crash per race. It wasn’t until semifinal No. 1 that all four boarders made it across the finish line without falling somewhere on the course.
We also saw a number of incredibly close finishes, including the final race in which gold was decided by about half a snowboard length. American Seth Wescot, the 2006 gold medalist, just edged Canada’s Mike Robertson for the gold after making a pass late. France’s Tony Ramoin took third ahead of American Nate Holland, the fourth finalist.
That a French rider medaled wasn’t a surprise, but it was unexpected that Ramoin was the one on the podium. Pierre Vaulter, the reigning World Cup champion and race favorite, didn’t make it out of the quarterfinals.
The best part? All of this action happened in about an hour.
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